This is Andrew Hovell's blog. He lives in Northern England. He plans for a living. He likes tea

June 09, 2014

APSOTW Result Part 1

Right here we go, the feedback.

(I'm not going to apologise for typos and stuff, I'm want to get this feedback out and for it to be comprehensive)

First, thanks to everyone who entered. This was a hardcore task. Because comms planning IS hardcore. You can't hide behind soft brand buffoonery, you have to roll up your sleeves and deal with some fundamental stuff.

As Rob mentioned, "there are too many people out there who forget our is to drive our clients' business, not just make nice ads"

Some general feedback:

There's nothing wrong with resisting a framework or strategy template, in fact, there's too much process in this business, allowing too many to hide from proper thinking. However, I was surprised at how little folks overtly followed the "issue, insight, idea, implementation' structure. I was looking for strong arguments and support of course, but even where people followed the stucture, there wasn't enough boiling down into a few rich hooks to hang your thinking.

A piece of advice. Right the last slide first, then the first one and finally, THE key slide in the middle that captures the moment of revelation in your presentation. Then populate the links as succinctly as possible.

Also, there was some great thinking and some good points of view, but there seemed to be lots of subjectivity and less simple factual support. It's hard of course doing this for a UK brand if you're not from here, but nevertheless.

Rob said,"a client isn’t going to necessarily respond favourably to (a point of view)if you haven’t got a broader understanding of both the market, the competition and the audience … otherwise they just think you’re either kissing their ass or kicking it.

For me, being subjective only works if you have some data/experience/insight that allows you to frame your opinion from a much more objective point of view … something that either helps frame the real problem they’re facing or can liberate some commercially valuable solution. Easier said than done, but it’s part of the reason we get paid"

I also felt on a number of occasions that folks were looking for brand problems to solve, rather than core issues that were getting in the way of growth. Sometimes that is brand of course, but you need to really spell out WHY.

A couple of people clearly identified a clear issue comms was going to solve, but not eveybody. I often think this is heart of comms planning, if you can get a clear problem for everyone to have a go at, you're most of the way there.

Rob said, "Sure things like ‘branding inconsistency’ and ‘distribution’ are major factors that need to be brought out, discussed and dealt with … but they rarely capture the core issue a brand needs to deal with in the market.

Is the audience right?

Is the audience actually defined clearly.

What role is your brand/product actually playing?

Are their shifts in cultural attitudes & behaviour that you are missing?

Are you being true to who you are or positioning yourself because of a competitors POV?

There’s a bunch of stuff … but when you really drill down, there will be one or two critical factors that ultimately influence or determine everything".

Oh, and we both thought everyone could have worked harder at presenting their argument in a more inspirational way. Designing your charts a little and thinking about telling your story a little more rather than a series of charts.

Have a look at this for reference as to how you might write a deck for people to read, while still maintaining a sense of theatre and careful pace. And we both thought there was too much repeating of the brief. Consider feedback on how you found the brief to work on, and what tensions or challenges were.

So, to the individual entries.

Freya

It's great you did your own research. Great you shared some learnings, but it felt more like your opinion rather than observations of stuff actually happening. Also, I wanted to have ONE killer thought and your idea seemed a bit, 'maybe this'.

I did like how you tried to keep this simple - it's about looking better, embrace vanity, let's not kid ourselves. In fact, once upon a time, I had a similar thought for a female targeted energy drink, but I wanted this developed a little more. Also, perhaps the plan was a bit tactical. we were looking a little more for core jobs comminacation would do. For example, a strong point of view on 'it's about looking good, let's admit it' felt like something with enough energy and talk value for a Youtube content partnership, perhaps provacative TV pointing towards it...take a look at this Selfridges stuff, as much for the shape of the campaign as the idea...

In addition Rob said,"I did like her ‘diabetes’ comment. I was disappointed she reduced it to an ‘ad placement’ because there is something interesting and different in it. Whether it’s interesting or different enough to grow the brand in the way they want it is open for debate … but saying ‘a drink so good for you, even diabetics drink it for energy’ could be very interesting indeed"

Jane and Mike

Great you boil it all down to a clear set of goals. I wanted to show me where the leap from business to marketing objectives had come from though. Clean living is interesting, but I wanted more justification ,especially for a new brand position. Really great you look at what is already working/available, this isn't done enough by very experienced people even, and the four insight buckets work really well. And purity is interesting, as is the insight about not suffereing for health. Something rub against there, a tension to play with.

But then you're proposition loses to opportunity to play with this. Guilt free pleasure feels like a rich toy for comms to play with, I can see all sorts of shapes for creative to become, and media can really go wild with context and need states.

Rob said, "It just doesn’t push against anything. It ends up making the brand seem bland and given their product insight is basically saying ‘this is the brand that stops scaring people into feeling bad about themselves"

There was something far more interesting and pragmatic in there, just waiting to come out.n fact, a task, or statement of intent would have worked a lot better than a proposition, as single minded messaging propositions only really work for the advertising creatives (if then!), this is about a comms task for an interactive team. I thought the customer journey slide and principle of meeting them in their world was helpful, but I wasn't sure you followed the thought through. Adsmart TV for example would be efficient, but it still felt a little like 'talking at people' unless you have a bigger idea for the role of TV -perhaps adding scale to the activation or co-creation pieces?

Pierce and Jeanie

At times I felt there was a lot of opinion, great to have a point of view, but it needed more support.

Great you turned the business task into a human task, but then the task was a bit, "this and this' rather than a fundamental challenge to mobilise on. Now I loved the 'it's water duh!" thought but questiond if folks really are skeptical about miracle products. In the UK, Boots No 7 position is based on miracle products, "Ta Dah".

Great you have a SIMPLE idea, but it felt a little like a TV ad proposition and 'nature is best' doesn't feel that new.

The plan was nice and simple with clear tasks, it made a lot of sense ,but I thought your idea of 'the brand with nothing to hide was interesting' and could have sprinkled more magic dust and innovation. Also, I wasn't sure if their was any media to add sufficient scale or at least more emotive heavy lifting, perhaps a partnership with the Guardian? Brands need a wider enthusiasm and perhaps a genuine conversation around the work/.life balance thing in the 21st century hosted by the Guardian could have been interesting - I'm not saying work life balance is original, but I for one am finding that collaborating with media owners on something simple, but that matters to their readers/viewers can generate great stuff .

Rob said, "They had something in their presentation that I felt could have provided the tension to build brand distinction ["There’s heavy skepticism around miracle products …”], but instead of exploring that further, they decided to say “ … and water remains the purest beverage available” which may be true but:

1 Is open to debate given the current market trend for flavoured waters

2 Seems appropriate to any water brand, not our specific client"

At this point it's worth noting that if you can define your goal, then a find a tension or issue in the lives of your tightly defined audience that relates this, you're most of the way there.

If this was Nike before Just Do It, you'd be saying, "Celebrate the empowering nature of sport in a world where it's unable to live up to the American myth of self-reliance"

Anyway. So far, great work everyone. You've worked really hard and their some wonderful pieces of thinking.I'm not sure you've really made the most of the nuggets when you've got them, in fact many are buried in your decks a little.

Comments

Well done to everyone that took part. I know it was tough but the feedback hopefully will help you move forward. Regardless of what we said, it's great you put yourself out there and I look forward to seeing the next submission.